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person2004–present

Wouter Kusters

Disciplines:
philosophy
language/linguistics
psychiatry/psychosis

Summary

Dutch linguist and philosopher who experienced psychotic episodes and wrote A Philosophy of Madness (2014, English 2020) — arguing that psychosis and mysticism share structural similarities and that the insights available in psychosis, if properly processed, constitute genuine philosophical knowledge.

Core Contribution

Argues that psychosis is not simply a brain malfunction but an altered relationship with reality that has structural parallels to mystical experience — the dissolution of the ordinary self-world boundary, the sense of absolute significance, the encounter with eternity — making Kusters the most sophisticated analyst of the psychosis-mysticism relationship.

Notable Works & Achievements

A Philosophy of Madness

Historical Influences

William James Wittgenstein Husserl

Intellectual Lineage

Netherlands Psychosis

Contemporaries & Peers

Jeff Kripal Bruce Greyson

Minds Influenced

Consciousness studies Jonathan Bi

Intellectual Posterity

A Philosophy of Madness Kusters on psychosis-mysticism

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Wouter Kusters

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